President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the rationalisation of government agencies – The move will trigger the scrapping of some federal government agencies to reduce Nigeria\’s cost of governance – When concluded, there will be a reduction in the number of statutory agencies from 263 to 161.
President Muhammadu Buhari approved the implementation of the Steve Oransaye committee report on the rationalisation of government agencies. The committee set up by the Goodluck Jonathan administration had recommended the scrapping of some federal government agencies to reduce Nigeria\’s over-bloated recurrent expenditure and ultimately the cost of governance.
It recommended a reduction in the number of statutory agencies from 263 to 161, while advocating for the merger of some agencies. The Buhari\’s government is cutting cost as Nigeria battles economic difficulties Source: Twitter Minister of finance, budget and national planning, Zainab Ahmed, has disclosed that the president will be implementing the recommendations.
She made the comment when she appeared on a programme on Channels Television. Ahmed said the federal government had started to address the issue of high costs of governance by implementing the report.
Her words: “The president has approved that this administration should implement the recommendations of the Oransaye report. “So, the Oransaye report is a report that has reviewed the whole of the size of government. It has made a very significant recommendation in reducing the number of agencies, merging some agencies together.”
Meanwhile, as the Nigerian government continues to source for funds to meet its obligation amid the coronavirus pandemic, the board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the sum of $3.4billion to support Nigeria’s COVID-19 fight. The grant to Nigeria is the highest so far to any member country. It is called Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), and granted to member countries that are not under an IMF programme. The loan by the IMF is part of measures to cushion the impact of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s economy after the Nigerian government negotiated a 5-year financing aid of $3.4 billion from the global body.
In a related development, an economic expert, Femi Odewunmi, has sounded a note of warning that the aftermath of COVID-19 will put several businesses under pressure in Nigeria. Odewunmi stated this in on Friday, April 17 while interacting with select journalists virtually, warning that businesses need to start coming up with strategies on how to succeed with the current economic lockdown and its aftershock.
